No cooling off period

Desert Vista coach Dan Hinds will take the varsity to Winslow on
Sunday for a week of team building exercises and preparing for the
first practice of the year on Aug. 1.

By Brian Johnson, AFN File

The Round Valley Dome in Eagar, Ariz., is one of the
destinations for East Valley teams when they heasd up north for
preseason camps.

Photo by White Mountain Independ

Around an inner-city school overflowing with
economic strife, and daily personal and familial struggles, summer
football camp was a precious light in the middle of an otherwise
dark tunnel.

When Brian Walker took over the Tempe High
football program two years ago, summer school and conflicts and the
inevitable coaching change meant 24 kids made it out of the heat
and up to Snowflake for a week filled with practices and
team-building activities.

Last year it was back up to 48 kids making the
trek to Prescott Valley, practicing three times a day, going to
movies, playing mini-golf and spending a little time with Prescott
High School kids.

A road trip to cooler country and weekend
entertainment is basic stuff for most East Valley schools and kids,
but for many of Walker’s players, “it was like Christmas in a way,
maybe better.”

This year, it’s a blackout.

While most E.V. schools begin annual treks
north and east in the next one to two weeks, the Buffaloes will
spend July 27 and 28 camping inside their gym, practicing on their
field. An estimated $8,000 needed for nearly 50 kids to go to camp
fell nearly $2,000 short.

The team tried alumni donations, and doing all
the things most other schools use for fundraising: Gift cards,
merchandise, school athletic apparel, players working at a Casino
Night.

But the neighborhood dynamics and economic
swoon won, as more kids had to take up jobs last spring because
their parent(s) lost theirs.

“It’s been a lot more difficult this year,”
Walker said. “I completely didn’t expect it to happen. We
implemented some team building inside Prescott Valley — mini golf,
movies, Prescott H.S. football team doing social stuff — and they
loved that a lot.

“They were obviously upset.”

Tempe is one of the hardest-hit cities in
recent years, though at nearby McClintock, coach Matt Lewis said
the Chargers did two fundraisers (another is coming later this
month) that generated $4,500, or nearly triple the amount of recent
years.

But even though schools such as Mesa,
McClintock, Westwood and Paradise Valley raised enough money for
camp, the financial burdens continue to mount.

Desert Vista is heading to Winslow for Camp of
Champions on Sunday and come back on Friday, while Mountain Pointe
is heading to Camp Tontozona Aug, 12 through 14 for some team
bonding a break from the heat.

The Thunder, which used fundraising to pay for
the trip, return to Winslow after spending last season in Eagar and
the Round Valley Dome.

“It’s a great way to get the season started,”
senior linebacker Mike Arredondo said. “It’s more than
team-bonding; it’s family bonding because we basically live with
each other inside (Winslow High’s) gym.”

The financial struggles are nothing new for
some schools, and it’s not getting easier.

Westwood didn’t go to camp last year. The
Warriors looked at going out-of-state, but it required up-front
payments six months in advance that were too expensive for most
kids to afford, and by the time that plan was scratched, the
in-state destinations up north were full.

This year, the Warriors are ponying up $280
each for a week in Snowflake. This time, it was decided when the
calendar turned to 2011 to give kids more time for fundraising, and
most in-state camps offer more flexibility with payments.

Westwood kids did a lift-a-thon for donations
via weightlifting, washed cars and several kids were set up with
neighborhood houses that needed landscaping or yard
maintenance.

“For some of our kids it’s huge,” Westwood
coach Greg Mendez said. “It’s a huge deal to get on a bus and go
outside of here and get away from families and the city. To have
kids serve meals to each other or carry one another’s cleats,
little things like that... Last year we didn’t go and I kicked
myself in the butt for not forcing the issue more. Kids remember
football camp.”

It’s $280 for six days in Snowflake, and while
68 JV and freshmen went ahead of this week’s varsity contingent of
60, it’s scratch-and-claw for nearly two-thirds of Mesa’s kids
every year.

The Jackrabbits began in late winter with
letter-writing campaigns, sold merchandise and did a sponsorship
program for each player. Parents or community members who sponsor a
football player get to hang out with the team during picture day,
receive a couple in-uniform photos and spend a future pregame both
in the locker room and then the sidelines Friday night.

“Finances are the big problem all the time,”
Moore said. “The fact someone doesn’t have money isn’t reason not
to go. We don’t have anyone back out on us because of money. We’re
going to be financially tight. Anything we do is about putting away
money to go. It’s that important, not so much for football but it’s
everything else.”

The neighborhoods around Paradise Valley aren’t
as Scottsdale-wealthy as the city name suggests, but the Trojans
are one of the few who pulled enough together to go to Whittier
College in California next week.

They sold cookie dough, took advantage of tax
credits and were fortunate enough to have a couple huge volleyball
tournaments where players put together and took apart 26 volleyball
courts for $175 per court.

A couple families even paid other kids’ $400
fees so they could go, and those kids will pay back that money in
installments. A couple kids who raised more than what was needed
donated their remains to teammates who needed help.

“I’ll never let a kid not go because of money,”
P.V. coach Donnie Yantis said. “I’ll go and beat the bush for kids
to earn money. We could stay at P.V. and run around or go up north
and sleep on gym floor, but a lot of kids have never been to
California or the ocean and may never get there (again). It’s an
experience.”

Meanwhile, Tempe High will use its gym floor
and cafeteria, and maybe put a ban on electronic devices to keep
kids’ attention and temporarily get them away from the outside
world.

Walker and Marcos de Niza coach Roy Lopez have
had a couple conversations about trying to combine their teams at
one camp (usually the more kids who go at a time, the lower the
cost per kid). So perhaps next year things will turn back around
enough for many kids to earn a preseason (re-)treat.

“That team unity and bonding is going to be
missed, I can’t emphasize it enough,” Walker said. “You don’t get
that in familiar places. Put them in a situation they’re not
familiar and that’s the best way to reach them.”

Youth may run wild on most motorcross tracks across the nation,
but being young doesn’t always translate into wins. Insert Peoria
resident Destry Abbott, a 39-year-old professional motocross rider,
who began his career before many of today’s riders saw their first
bike.

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